Child soldiers in Africa.United Nations Secretary-General The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations. Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (born April 8, 1938) is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1 1997 to January 1 2007, serving two five-year terms. He was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. (KOH-fee AN-uhn) had grim news to report last February. More than 250,000 children worldwide are being used as soldiers, in violation of international law. The largest number of these children are in Africa. (See the map at right and the Uganda article on pp. 12-13.) Many of the child soldiers are age 12 of younger. Boys are forced to kill with guns. Girls are sexually attacked. The tragedy of child soldiers is not limited to Africa. Children ate also being forced to fight in Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (srē läng`kə) [Sinhalese,=resplendent land], formerly Ceylon, ancient Taprobane, officially Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, island republic (2005 est. pop. . Some progress has been made in freeing child soldiers in Africa. But the situation remains grave. The map on this page shows the countries in Africa where child soldiers were being used during the time period covered by the report. Study the map, then answer the questions. QUESTIONS 1. Child soldiers are found in how many African countries? 2. Which part of Africa has the largest number of countries with child soldiers? 3. Which part of Africa does not have child soldiers, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the map? 4. A rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army Noun 1. Lord's Resistance Army - a quasi-religious rebel group in Uganda that terrorized and raped women and kidnapped children who were forced to serve in the army is fighting Uganda's government. Uganda is in which part of Africa? 5. Child soldiers are fighting in which countries that border Uganda? 6. Uganda is on which line of latitude Noun 1. line of latitude - an imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equator parallel of latitude, parallel, latitude polar circle - a line of latitude at the north or south poles ? 7. Which countries in West Africa West Africa A region of western Africa between the Sahara Desert and the Gulf of Guinea. It was largely controlled by colonial powers until the 20th century. West African adj. & n. use child soldiers? 8. Has the use of child soldiers in Africa totally stopped, shown some improvement, or grown much worse in the past two years? 9. What is the source of information for this map? 10. The map information covers what period of time? ANSWERS 1. seven 2. East Africa (four) 3. North Africa 4. East Africa 5. Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan 6. equator 7. Cote d'lvoire and Liberia 8. shown some improvement 9. a report of the UN Secretary-General 10. Nov. 2003 to Dec. 2004 |
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